Do You Have Time for the Health Benefits of Vegetables?

If you are interested in
improving your diet, you will likely be adding more vegetables to your eating
plan. Most people do not receive the
health benefits of vegetables, instead letting protein be the mainstay of their
diets. Others substitute too many
low-value carbs, which are the villains you know too well – white flour, white
sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup.

The category on the food
pyramid is actually “fruits and
vegetables”, and many people make their diet heavy in fruit, but not so much on
the veggies. It’s so easy to grab that
banana you see hanging on your kitchen stand, or that peach that is blushing in
ripeness and filling your nostrils with its perfume. It’s not so simple to put vegetables in your
meals.

Why?

Vegetables need to be in
your diet so you can stay filled up.
Plenty of vegetables provide ample fiber for you, making it less likely
that you will snack between meals. This
is also a good long-term strategy for keeping those excess pounds off.

You don’t have to be a
vegetarian or a vegan to enjoy more vegetables in your meals. But once you eat more veggies, you’ll find
that it’s easier to prepare meatless meals, or have smaller portions of the
meat that you do eat. And that is one of
the health benefits of vegetables.

Definitely try to add more
vegetables during the warmer months of the growing season, when farmers’
markets and vegetable bins at the supermarket are overflowing with good
produce. Why start in the middle of
winter, when the selections are not as good?
Try it in the summer, and give your plan the best chance to work.

Wikimedia Commons (Nevit Dilmen)

How You Can Use This

The information presented
here will enable you to optimize the nutritive value of vegetables and save
yourself precious time in their preparation and storage.

Oh, and by the way, just
one heads-up. You may think that the cooking
methods below have a slightly American South slant to them. You are correct. My mother was born and raised in East Texas,
and I am a Texan through and through.
Unlike my mother, though, I don’t believe every vegetable should be
covered in melted butter and seasonings.
However, I do think that the occasional use of the right condiments and
seasonings can really enhance the flavor of vegetables. I love Mediterranean food, so I use lots of
lemon juice and olive oil.

One of my evening meals. I grew the green beans and the kale. My sister-in-law grew the squash.

Things You'll Need

Several cutting boards or
cutting surfaces, which you’ll be washing frequently

A couple of good vegetable
peelers

A sharp paring knife

Adequate storage
containers for left-overs or raw veggies

A salad spinner is wonderful and makes your lettuce and greens perfect.

A food processor would be nice and saves time! Even if you don't have a big one, a mini-chopper will work well for chopping onions and carrots

Tips for Preparation

Tired of raw carrots in
your salad? Grate them for use in soups
and salads. Cook them, mash them, and
combine them with mashed turnips for a different taste.

If you grow your own
vegetables, harvest lettuce, spinach,
and any other greens very early in the morning.
They will be fresher, and the leaves will not have had time to soak up
heat. If you must harvest in the
afternoon, be quick about it! The leaves
will wilt very rapidly.

Use lots of onions? Chop and mince a whole onion at a time. If you’re only using a small portion of the
onion, you can store the rest, and have them handy for a later dish.

Eggplant can be annoying
to figure out. Make sure you buy it in
season (summer) for best quality. I’ve
found the best way to cook eggplant is in the George Foreman Grill.

How do you wash
vegetables? When you are ready to use
them! If you wash lettuce ahead of time
and store it, you’re likely to retain too much moisture in the lettuce. Store veggies straight from the supermarket
in their plastic bags, and worry about washing them when the time comes.

Salad spinners are great
contraptions to have to spin the excess water out of lettuce, spinach, and
berries.

If you must store apples
in the refrigerator, keep them in a separate bin. They will continue to ripen, and will release
a gas that may hasten the breakdown of other vegetables in the same bin.

Store potatoes in the
coolest, darkest place in your house. But not in the refrigerator.

Take out the core in the
center of the onion. That is the hottest
part of the onion.

Do you like black-eyed
peas, purple hull peas, or green beans cooked with salt pork? The flavor will be enhanced if you cook them,
and store overnight in the refrigerator before eating.

A little salt in the
cooking water will make your vegetables cook faster.

Vine-ripe tomatoes retain
more of their flavor when they are left out on your kitchen counter. Once they’re cut, refrigerate them.

Interesting in freezing vegetables? Consult the many sources on the Internet
about freezing methods. For instance,
peppers can simply be chopped, put in storage bags, and go right into the
freezer. But green beans and okra must
be blanched first.

The best way to eat corn
is freshly harvested from the field.
Corn turns rapidly into a starch.
If you buy from a farmers’ stand, eat very soon, or cut the corn from
the cob and freeze it.

And Just How Much Time Are We Talking About?

Be determined! Adding more vegetables, especially fresh
ones, will take more time out of your day.
You must devote more time to preparation, cutting, cooking, and
clean-up.

So do you have time to eat
more vegetables? If you eat 3 vegetables for your evening meal,
you can count on it taking an extra 45 minutes out of your evening plans --
that is, if dinner is your heaviest meal.
At lunch, you’ll find you can’t be rushed, and you’ll need more time to
prepare it, but lunch prep won’t be quite as time-consuming as dinner is. Count on an extra 15 minutes to prepare
lunch.

So there you have it. You’ve got to set aside an extra hour per day
for your health. What else could you do
with an hour out of each day’s schedule that would be as healthy for your body
and your spirit?

Comments

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Author

gracenotes 7 years agofrom North Texas

Thanks for coming by. I appreciate it, Trish.

Tricia Mason 7 years agofrom The English Midlands

We definitely need to eat more vegetables.

Any quick and interesting ways to serve them are worth knowing about :)

Author

gracenotes 7 years agofrom North Texas

Hi AM,

Nice to see you. Like you, I have been using summer to be outside with various activities. Just haven't been inspired to write much. Also, I'm too busy harvesting and preparing vegetables! :-)

When I visited my mom for a week, she had frozen some of my brother's corn that they harvested in June. I never tasted anything better than that creamed corn. Yum.

Thanks so much for the comments.

Allen Werner 7 years agofrom West Allis

gracenotes, you are so right about the veggies. I am as guilty as anyone of not getting enough - my wife will confess to that. It always helps to get reminders to be more determined to eat right. Peace.